Search

My snow posts are likely exasperating my total 2 readers. I promise this will be my last post on snow unless I take some wonderful pictures outside or there is an overwhelming outcry for more DC snow news.

The subway service here has been affected by the snow, which has led to fewer trains running to even fewer places. This has resulted in a very tortured relationship dynamic between vehicle and passenger. Along the platform, some patrons loudly curse the Metro as being “so f…ing slow” — and a “dumb… metro” at that — but squeal and brighten up as soon as the train’s light comes down the tunnel and shines on their exuberant faces.

It was fully 48 hours since the flakes of Snowmageddon had ceased falling, but by midday Monday, many residents and merchants in Adams Morgan still had not cleared their portions of public walkways, disregarding the District’s law mandating that property owners clear snow and ice from their sidewalks within eight hours after the snowfall’s completion.

Every snowstorm generates complaints about homeowners and business people who fail to do their part, as well as extensive debate about who’s supposed to clear sidewalks, who’s not doing the job and why freaking not? And for those who managed to liberate their cars from the Snowpocalypse of 2010, another tricky moral dilemma can lead to some volatile confrontations: If you dig your car out from its frozen tomb, do you then own that parking spot until the sun melts open the rest of the curbside space?

I know what you’re thinking. “Did they just use the word ‘freaking’ in a non-quote portion of a Washington Post headliner?”

Yes. You are reading correctly. [Edit Wednesday, February 10: I took another look at this post in the morning, and decided that reference ought to be classified as free indirect speech. The general point still holds, though.]

Federal buildings are closed for the third day in a row, and school districts have marked the rest of the week as snow days.

Okay, I risk extreme self-pity by continuing my snow commentary. I hope to return to this blog with several captivating photos of dry ground and images of direct sunlight. Till then —